"I live in Lafayette, and am a descendant of Caukimi Burnett, the Potawatomi wife of William Burnett.

"My grandfather, Abram Burnett, was a full-blooded Potawatomi, and hereditary chief of the Potawatomis, adopted by his cousin, Abraham Burnett and by Caukimi's son William.

"After living in Lafayette for 12 years, it amazes me how little people know about Tippecanoe County's first people.

"My grandfather was removed from Indiana in the 1838 'Trail of Death' march from Indiana to Kansas.

"It seems that there is very little knowledge of the 1838 march that passed through Tippecanoe County. Some people I've spoken to have never even heard of it.

"I find it sad that the county sweeps a large part of its history under the rug."

Twin Lakes marks beginning of trail

The Potawatomi "Trail of Death" left Indiana in the late summer of 1838, departing from what is the Chief Menominee Monument south of the present-day city of Plymouth, Ind., near Twin Lakes in Marshall County.

There is a sign on U.S. 31 south of Plymouth that points west, toward the monument a few miles away.

Chief Menominee had been leading a resistance by Native Americans. He had been refusing to sell his land to the U.S. government, and refusing to move west of the Mississippi River, a move mandated in a treaty made in 1836. The State of Indiana government, new since 1816, forced Chief Menominee to go anyway.

Hundreds of other Potawatomi who also did not want to leave Indiana had been moving to Menominee's village. The village had grown from four wigwams in the year 1821 to 100-some wigwams and cabins by 1838.

A man named Abel Pepper, designated as the Indian agent for northern Indiana, had secured cessions of Potawatomi land from 1834 to 1837 in treaties made along the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester, along the Yellow River near Plymouth, and the Wabash and Eel rivers near Logansport.

These agreements became known as "the Whisky Treaties" because the state is said to have used whisky to persuade the Native Americans to sign them.

An emigration of the Potawatomi in the year 1837 covered more than 600 miles from Logansport to eastern Kansas.

This group included the Potawatomi chiefs Kee-wau-nay, Ne-bash, Pash-po-ho and Nas-waw-kay.

Upon arrival in Kansas, the Native Americans called for the services of a Catholic priest.

As a result, Father Christian Hoecken established St. Mary's Mission on a creek near the present-day town of Centerville, Kan.

In the late summer of 1838 many white "squatters" had begun settling former Potawatomi land in Marshall, Kosciusko, Fulton, Cass and other Indiana counties.

The squatters, fearing an uprising, asked Indiana Gov. David Wallace to investigate. Gov. Wallace spoke to various white people and decided that the remaining Potawatomi must go.

NEXT: The Potawatomi "Trail of Death" begins.

About this series

Each week, the Journal & Courier is reprinting some of the best of Bob Kriebel's Old Lafayette columns. Today recalls the Potawatomi "Trail of Death" which passed through Tippecanoe County. This is taken from a column published August 1, 2010.